Council February 1

Hey folks, we’ve got a quick council meeting this morning in the Wardroom at 12:30PM. Here’s the agenda. The live blog will start at approx 12:30PM AST.

Live Blog

12:29PM – We are about to get things underway. Just waiting to reach quorum.

12:34: Council called to order. We’re chilling in the wardy. It’s a nice spot.

Haydn has received corrections to the minutes from last council.

Jesse notes that he abstained from the final motion at last council (regarding reaffirming the union’s commitment to non discrimination, following the gender equity discussion) and would like to be noted in the minutes as having done so.

We approved last council’s minutes.

Anna is moving the following motion:

Be it resolved that the following referendum question appear on the ballot during the spring 2014 King’s Students’ Union elections:

Be it resolved that the King’s Students’ Union membership dues be increased by $9.40 per semester.

YES
NO

Anna says based on the town hall meeting on Thursday night, there seemed to be general support for this amount and we should move forward with this question.

I asked whether we should specify that the change will start September 2014. Anna notes that the motion specifies when this happened so we should be covered. September is clearly the next time dues will be collected.

Haritha asks whether we could push the number up a couple dollars since the consultation seemed to go well and students seemed to support it. She thinks it would be a small change for the individual but a huge gain for the union.

Anika notes that passing the $10 threshold could seem too substantial and we really want this to pass.

Alex and Haydn are uncomfortable with the idea of changing the number after having consulted with the student body.

Alex says there was a bit of pushback at the town hall that suggested that increasing the number could impede accessibility.

Jake reminds us that referendum questions are binding if over 25% of the student body votes in favour. We need three quarters of council to vote in favour to bring this forward to the referendum.

The motion is adopted! Cheers from the exec. You’ll be able to vote on this question at the referendum which will coincide with the exec and BOG rep elections on February 12 and 13.

Anna says we got a lot of great feedback about the best way to educate people about this referendum question and she took names of councillors who are interested in organizing promotion materials.

We’re looking at February 23rd as the most likely date for our next council meeting.